Don't Cross the LHC Stream! (Maybe)

jamie points out this piece from always-entertaining Bad Astronomer Phil Plait, who asks this week the simple question "What happens if you put your hand in the beam of the Large Hadron Collider?" The thrill of discovery to me doesn't sound worth the worst-case scenario.

Re:Already happened before

[Anonymous Coward]

Did he get any super powers?

Re:Already happened before

[bcmm]

(though we don't know of anyone else who has been exposed to radiation in the form of a proton beam moving at about the speed of sound) [My emphasis]

This was where I stopped reading and just read Anatoli Bugorski [wikipedia.org]'s Wikipedia article instead.

Re:Already happened before

[atomicthumbs]

When I wrote that Wikipedia article, I used the Wired article as a source. Other people added more. Decide for yourself.

Re:Already happened before

[ceoyoyo]

The protons in an accelerator move a hell of a lot closer to the speed of light than they do to the speed of sound (in any imaginable substance).

Re:Already happened before

[Anne Honime]

[citation needed]

Re:Already happened before

[shentino]

No, you won't.

The protons in the back have to accelerate the protons in front of them when they bump, and the proton in front can only get closer to the speed of light.

While it does so, it gets heavier and harder to move, which causes resistance to further speeding up.